"Conductors I Have Known (& Some I Haven’t!)”
A talk by John Amis Vice president of Putney Music
John Amis' varied life in the world of sound has enabled him to become one of radio and television's favourite music presenters and performers; he is the 'symphony' man in the long running radio show 'MY MUSIC'. Five and a half weeks in a bank determined him to have a go at earning a living in music. He sold gramophone records, managed orchestras (notably for Beecham), was a music critic for eighteen years, organised the Dartington Summer School for a quarter-of-a-century, appeared in the Hoffnung Festivals, and had his own radio and television shows.
The result of this varied life is that he has known everybody in the music world from Stravinsky to Stockhausen, from Donald Swann to Gerard Hoffnung, from Britten to Birtwistle.
His short career as a tenor began with Hermann's 'Moby Dick' (not the title role); he made his operatic debut in April 1990 as the Emperor in 'Turandot' and finished appropriately with 'A Late Lark' by Delius, although he occasionally breaks into song in his one-man-show 'Amiscellany' and he pipes up as siffleur and singer in 'My Music' in the company of Messrs. Muir, Norden and Wallace.
February 24, 2012